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+Project Gutenberg's Pauline's Passion and Punishment, by Louisa May Alcott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Pauline's Passion and Punishment
+
+Author: Louisa May Alcott
+
+
+Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8384]
+This file was first posted on July 5, 2003
+Last Updated: April 24, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAULINE'S PASSION AND PUNISHMENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Beginners Projects, Laura Sabel and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PAULINE'S PASSION
+
+and
+
+PUNISHMENT
+
+
+by Louisa May Alcott
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+To and fro, like a wild creature in its cage, paced that handsome woman,
+with bent head, locked hands, and restless steps. Some mental storm,
+swift and sudden as a tempest of the tropics, had swept over her and
+left its marks behind. As if in anger at the beauty now proved
+powerless, all ornaments had been flung away, yet still it shone
+undimmed, and filled her with a passionate regret. A jewel glittered at
+her feet, leaving the lace rent to shreds on the indignant bosom that
+had worn it; the wreaths of hair that had crowned her with a woman's
+most womanly adornment fell disordered upon shoulders that gleamed the
+fairer for the scarlet of the pomegranate flowers clinging to the bright
+meshes that had imprisoned them an hour ago; and over the face, once so
+affluent in youthful bloom, a stern pallor had fallen like a blight, for
+pride was slowly conquering passion, and despair had murdered hope.
+
+Pausing in her troubled march, she swept away the curtain swaying in the
+wind and looked out, as if imploring help from Nature, the great mother
+of us all. A summer moon rode high in a cloudless heaven, and far as eye
+could reach stretched the green wilderness of a Cuban _cafetal_. No
+forest, but a tropical orchard, rich in lime, banana, plantain, palm,
+and orange trees, under whose protective shade grew the evergreen coffee
+plant, whose dark-red berries are the fortune of their possessor, and
+the luxury of one-half the world. Wide avenues diverging from the
+mansion, with its belt of brilliant shrubs and flowers, formed shadowy
+vistas, along which, on the wings of the wind, came a breath of far-off
+music, like a wooing voice; for the magic of night and distance lulled
+the cadence of a Spanish _contradanza_ to a trance of sound, soft,
+subdued, and infinitely sweet. It was a southern scene, but not a
+southern face that looked out upon it with such unerring glance; there
+was no southern languor in the figure, stately and erect; no southern
+swarthiness on fairest cheek and arm; no southern darkness in the
+shadowy gold of the neglected hair; the light frost of northern snows
+lurked in the features, delicately cut, yet vividly alive, betraying a
+temperament ardent, dominant, and subtle. For passion burned in the deep
+eyes, changing their violet to black. Pride sat on the forehead, with
+its dark brows; all a woman's sweetest spells touched the lips, whose
+shape was a smile; and in the spirited carriage of the head appeared the
+freedom of an intellect ripened under colder skies, the energy of a
+nature that could wring strength from suffering, and dare to act where
+feebler souls would only dare desire.
+
+Standing thus, conscious only of the wound that bled in that high heart
+of hers, and the longing that gradually took shape and deepened to a
+purpose, an alien presence changed the tragic atmosphere of that still
+room and woke her from her dangerous mood. A wonderfully winning guise
+this apparition wore, for youth, hope, and love endowed it with the
+charm that gives beauty to the plainest, while their reign endures. A
+boy in any other climate, in this his nineteen years had given him the
+stature of a man; and Spain, the land of romance, seemed embodied in
+this figure, full of the lithe slenderness of the whispering palms
+overhead, the warm coloring of the deep-toned flowers sleeping in the
+room, the native grace of the tame antelope lifting its human eyes to
+his as he lingered on the threshold in an attitude eager yet timid,
+watching that other figure as it looked into the night and found no
+solace there.
+
+"Pauline!"
+
+She turned as if her thought had taken voice and answered her, regarded
+him a moment, as if hesitating to receive the granted wish, then
+beckoned with the one word.
+
+"Come!"
+
+Instantly the fear vanished, the ardor deepened, and with an imperious
+"Lie down!" to his docile attendant, the young man obeyed with equal
+docility, looking as wistfully toward his mistress as the brute toward
+her master, while he waited proudly humble for her commands.
+
+"Manuel, why are you here?"
+
+"Forgive me! I saw Dolores bring a letter; you vanished, an hour passed,
+I could wait no longer, and I came."
+
+"I am glad, I needed my one friend. Read that."
+
+She offered a letter, and with her steady eyes upon him, her purpose
+strengthening as she looked, stood watching the changes of that
+expressive countenance. This was the letter:
+
+
+Pauline--
+
+Six months ago I left you, promising to return and take you home my
+wife; I loved you, but I deceived you; for though my heart was wholly
+yours, my hand was not mine to give. This it was that haunted me through
+all that blissful summer, this that marred my happiness when you owned
+you loved me, and this drove me from you, hoping I could break the tie
+with which I had rashly bound myself. I could not, I am married, and
+there all ends. Hate me, forget me, solace your pride with the memory
+that none knew your wrong, assure your peace with the knowledge that
+mine is destroyed forever, and leave my punishment to remorse and time.
+
+Gilbert
+
+
+With a gesture of wrathful contempt, Manuel flung the paper from him as
+he flashed a look at his companion, muttering through his teeth,
+"Traitor! Shall I kill him?"
+
+Pauline laughed low to herself, a dreary sound, but answered with a slow
+darkening of the face that gave her words an ominous significance. "Why
+should you? Such revenge is brief and paltry, fit only for mock
+tragedies or poor souls who have neither the will to devise nor the will
+to execute a better. There are fates more terrible than death; weapons
+more keen than poniards, more noiseless than pistols. Women use such,
+and work out a subtler vengeance than men can conceive. Leave Gilbert to
+remorse--and me."
+
+She paused an instant, and by some strong effort banished the black
+frown from her brow, quenched the baleful fire of her eyes, and left
+nothing visible but the pale determination that made her beautiful face
+more eloquent than her words.
+
+"Manuel, in a week I leave the island."
+
+"Alone, Pauline?"
+
+"No, not alone."
+
+A moment they looked into each other's eyes, each endeavoring to read
+the other. Manuel saw some indomitable purpose, bent on conquering all
+obstacles. Pauline saw doubt, desire, and hope; knew that a word would
+bring the ally she needed; and, with a courage as native to her as her
+pride, resolved to utter it.
+
+Seating herself, she beckoned her companion to assume the place beside
+her, but for the first time he hesitated. Something in the unnatural
+calmness of her manner troubled him, for his southern temperament was
+alive to influences whose presence would have been unfelt by one less
+sensitive. He took the cushion at her feet, saying, half tenderly, half
+reproachfully, "Let me keep my old place till I know in what character I
+am to fill the new. The man you trusted has deserted you; the boy you
+pitied will prove loyal. Try him, Pauline."
+
+"I will."
+
+And with the bitter smile unchanged upon her lips, the low voice
+unshaken in its tones, the deep eyes unwavering in their gaze, Pauline
+went on:
+
+"You know my past, happy as a dream till eighteen. Then all was swept
+away, home, fortune, friends, and I was left, like an unfledged bird,
+without even the shelter of a cage. For five years I have made my life
+what I could, humble, honest, but never happy, till I came here, for
+here I saw Gilbert. In the poor companion of your guardian's daughter he
+seemed to see the heiress I had been, and treated me as such. This
+flattered my pride and touched my heart. He was kind, I grateful; then
+he loved me, and God knows how utterly I loved him! A few months of
+happiness the purest, then he went to make home ready for me, and I
+believed him; for where I wholly love I wholly trust. While my own peace
+was undisturbed, I learned to read the language of your eyes, Manuel, to
+find the boy grown into the man, the friend warmed into a lover. Your
+youth had kept me blind too long. Your society had grown dear to me, and
+I loved you like a sister for your unvarying kindness to the solitary
+woman who earned her bread and found it bitter. I told you my secret to
+prevent the utterance of your own. You remember the promise you made me
+then, keep it still, and bury the knowledge of my lost happiness deep in
+your pitying heart, as I shall in my proud one. Now the storm is over,
+and I am ready for my work again, but it must be a new task in a new
+scene. I hate this house, this room, the faces I must meet, the duties I
+must perform, for the memory of that traitor haunts them all. I see a
+future full of interest, a stage whereon I could play a stirring part. I
+long for it intensely, yet cannot make it mine alone. Manuel, do you
+love me still?"
+
+Bending suddenly, she brushed back the dark hair that streaked his
+forehead and searched the face that in an instant answered her. Like a
+swift rising light, the eloquent blood rushed over swarthy cheek and
+brow, the slumberous softness of the eyes kindled with a flash, and the
+lips, sensitive as any woman's, trembled yet broke into a rapturous
+smile as he cried, with fervent brevity, "I would die for you!"
+
+A look of triumph swept across her face, for with this boy, as
+chivalrous as ardent, she knew that words were not mere breath. Still,
+with her stern purpose uppermost, she changed the bitter smile into one
+half-timid, half-tender, as she bent still nearer, "Manuel, in a week I
+leave the island. Shall I go alone?"
+
+"No, Pauline."
+
+He understood her now. She saw it in the sudden paleness that fell on
+him, heard it in the rapid beating of his heart, felt it in the strong
+grasp that fastened on her hand, and knew that the first step was won. A
+regretful pang smote her, but the dark mood which had taken possession
+of her stifled the generous warnings of her better self and drove her
+on.
+
+"Listen, Manuel. A strange spirit rules me tonight, but I will have no
+reserves from you, all shall be told; then, if you will come, be it so;
+if not, I shall go my way as solitary as I came. If you think that this
+loss has broken my heart, undeceive yourself, for such as I live years
+in an hour and show no sign. I have shed no tears, uttered no cry, asked
+no comfort; yet, since I read that letter, I have suffered more than
+many suffer in a lifetime. I am not one to lament long over any hopeless
+sorrow. A single paroxysm, sharp and short, and it is over. Contempt has
+killed my love, I have buried it, and no power can make it live again,
+except as a pale ghost that will not rest till Gilbert shall pass
+through an hour as bitter as the last."
+
+"Is that the task you give yourself, Pauline?"
+
+The savage element that lurks in southern blood leaped up in the boy's
+heart as he listened, glittered in his eye, and involuntarily found
+expression in the nervous grip of the hands that folded a fairer one
+between them. Alas for Pauline that she had roused the sleeping devil,
+and was glad to see it!
+
+"Yes, it is weak, wicked, and unwomanly; yet I persist as relentlessly
+as any Indian on a war trail. See me as I am, not the gay girl you have
+known, but a revengeful woman with but one tender spot now left in her
+heart, the place you fill. I have been wronged, and I long to right
+myself at once. Time is too slow; I cannot wait, for that man must be
+taught that two can play at the game of hearts, taught soon and sharply.
+I can do this, can wound as I have been wounded, can sting him with
+contempt, and prove that I too can forget."
+
+"Go on, Pauline. Show me how I am to help you."
+
+"Manuel, I want fortune, rank, splendor, and power; you can give me all
+these, and a faithful friend beside. I desire to show Gilbert the
+creature he deserted no longer poor, unknown, unloved, but lifted higher
+than himself, cherished, honored, applauded, her life one of royal
+pleasure, herself a happy queen. Beauty, grace, and talent you tell me I
+possess; wealth gives them luster, rank exalts them, power makes them
+irresistible. Place these worldly gifts in my hand and that hand is
+yours. See, I offer it."
+
+She did so, but it was not taken. Manuel had left his seat and now stood
+before her, awed by the undertone of strong emotion in her calmly spoken
+words, bewildered by the proposal so abruptly made, longing to ask the
+natural question hovering on his lips, yet too generous to utter it.
+Pauline read his thought, and answered it with no touch of pain or pride
+in the magical voice that seldom spoke in vain.
+
+"I know your wish; it is as just as your silence is generous, and I
+reply to it in all sincerity. You would ask, 'When I have given all that
+I possess, what do I receive in return?' This--a wife whose friendship
+is as warm as many a woman's love; a wife who will give you all the
+heart still left her, and cherish the hope that time may bring a harvest
+of real affection to repay you for the faithfulness of years; who,
+though she takes the retribution of a wrong into her hands and executes
+it in the face of heaven, never will forget the honorable name you give
+into her keeping or blemish it by any act of hers. I can promise no
+more. Will this content you, Manuel?"
+
+Before she ended his face was hidden in his hands, and tears streamed
+through them as he listened, for like a true child of the south each
+emotion found free vent and spent itself as swiftly as it rose. The
+reaction was more than he could bear, for in a moment his life was
+changed, months of hopeless longing were banished with a word, a
+blissful yes canceled the hard no that had been accepted as inexorable,
+and Happiness, lifting her full cup to his lips, bade him drink. A
+moment he yielded to the natural relief, then dashed his tears away and
+threw himself at Pauline's feet in that attitude fit only for a race as
+graceful as impassioned.
+
+"Forgive me! Take all I have--fortune, name, and my poor self; use us as
+you will, we are proud and happy to be spent for you! No service will be
+too hard, no trial too long if in the end you learn to love me with one
+tithe of the affection I have made my life. Do you mean it? Am I to go
+with you? To be near you always, to call you wife, and know we are each
+other's until death? What have I ever done to earn a fate like this?"
+
+Fast and fervently he spoke, and very winsome was the glad abandonment
+of this young lover, half boy, half man, possessing the simplicity of
+the one, the fervor of the other. Pauline looked and listened with a
+soothing sense of consolation in the knowledge that this loyal heart was
+all her own, a sweet foretaste of the devotion which henceforth was to
+shelter her from poverty, neglect, and wrong, and turn life's sunniest
+side to one who had so long seen only its most bleak and barren. Still
+at her feet, his arms about her waist, his face flushed and proud,
+lifted to hers, Manuel saw the cold mask soften, the stern eyes melt
+with a sudden dew as Pauline watched him, saying, "Dear Manuel, love me
+less; I am not worth such ardent and entire faith. Pause and reflect
+before you take this step. I will not bind you to my fate too soon lest
+you repent too late. We both stand alone in the world, free to make or
+mar our future as we will. I have chosen my lot. Recall all it may cost
+you to share it and be sure the price is not too high a one. Remember I
+am poor, you the possessor of one princely fortune, the sole heir to
+another."
+
+"The knowledge of this burdened me before; now I glory in it because I
+have the more for you."
+
+"Remember, I am older than yourself, and may early lose the beauty you
+love so well, leaving an old wife to burden your youth."
+
+"What are a few years to me? Women like you grow lovelier with age, and
+you shall have a strong young husband to lean on all your life."
+
+"Remember, I am not of your faith, and the priests will shut me out from
+your heaven."
+
+"Let them prate as they will. Where you go I will go; Santa Paula shall
+be my madonna!"
+
+"Remember, I am a deserted woman, and in the world we are going to my
+name may become the sport of that man's cruel tongue. Could you bear
+that patiently; and curb your fiery pride if I desired it?"
+
+"Anything for you, Pauline!"
+
+"One thing more. I give you my liberty; for a time give me forbearance
+in return, and though wed in haste woo me slowly, lest this sore heart
+of mine find even your light yoke heavy. Can you promise this, and wait
+till time has healed my wound, and taught me to be meek?"
+
+"I swear to obey you in all things; make me what you will, for soul and
+body I am wholly yours henceforth."
+
+"Faithful and true! I knew you would not fail me. Now go, Manuel.
+Tomorrow do your part resolutely as I shall do mine, and in a week we
+will begin the new life together. Ours is a strange betrothal, but it
+shall not lack some touch of tenderness from me. Love, good night."
+
+Pauline bent till her bright hair mingled with the dark, kissed the boy
+on lips and forehead as a fond sister might have done, then put him
+gently from her; and like one in a blessed dream he went away to pace
+all night beneath her window, longing for the day.
+
+As the echo of his steps died along the corridor, Pauline's eye fell on
+the paper lying where her lover flung it. At this sight all the softness
+vanished, the stern woman reappeared, and, crushing it in her hand with
+slow significance, she said low to herself, "This is an old, old story,
+but it shall have a new ending."
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+"What jewels will the senora wear tonight?"
+
+"None, Dolores. Manuel has gone for flowers--he likes them best. You may
+go."
+
+"But the senora's toilette is not finished; the sandals, the gloves, the
+garland yet remain."
+
+"Leave them all; I shall not go down. I am tired of this endless folly.
+Give me that book and go."
+
+The pretty Creole obeyed; and careless of Dolores' work, Pauline sank
+into the deep chair with a listless mien, turned the pages for a little,
+then lost herself in thoughts that seemed to bring no rest.
+
+Silently the young husband entered and, pausing, regarded his wife with
+mingled pain and pleasure--pain to see her so spiritless, pleasure to
+see her so fair. She seemed unconscious of his presence till the
+fragrance of his floral burden betrayed him, and looking up to smile a
+welcome she met a glance that changed the sad dreamer into an excited
+actor, for it told her that the object of her search was found.
+Springing erect, she asked eagerly, "Manuel, is he here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"His wife is with him."
+
+"Is she beautiful?"
+
+"Pretty, petite, and petulant."
+
+"And he?"
+
+"Unchanged: the same imposing figure and treacherous face, the same
+restless eye and satanic mouth. Pauline, let me insult him!"
+
+"Not yet. Were they together?"
+
+"Yes. He seemed anxious to leave her, but she called him back
+imperiously, and he came like one who dared not disobey."
+
+"Did he see you?"
+
+"The crowd was too dense, and I kept in the shadow."
+
+"The wife's name? Did you learn it?"
+
+"Barbara St. Just."
+
+"Ah! I knew her once and will again. Manuel, am I beautiful tonight?"
+
+"How can you be otherwise to me?"
+
+"That is not enough. I must look my fairest to others, brilliant and
+blithe, a happy-hearted bride whose honeymoon is not yet over."
+
+"For his sake, Pauline?"
+
+"For yours. I want him to envy you your youth, your comeliness, your
+content; to see the man he once sneered at the husband of the woman he
+once loved; to recall impotent regret. I know his nature, and can stir
+him to his heart's core with a look, revenge myself with a word, and
+read the secrets of his life with a skill he cannot fathom."
+
+"And when you have done all this, shall you be happier, Pauline?"
+
+"Infinitely; our three weeks' search is ended, and the real interest of
+the plot begins. I have played the lover for your sake, now play the man
+of the world for mine. This is the moment we have waited for. Help me to
+make it successful. Come! Crown me with your garland, give me the
+bracelets that were your wedding gift--none can be too brilliant for
+tonight. Now the gloves and fan. Stay, my sandals--you shall play
+Dolores and tie them on."
+
+With an air of smiling coquetry he had never seen before, Pauline
+stretched out a truly Spanish foot and offered him its dainty covering.
+Won by the animation of her manner, Manuel forgot his misgivings and
+played his part with boyish spirit, hovering about his stately wife as
+no assiduous maid had ever done; for every flower was fastened with a
+word sweeter than itself, the white arms kissed as the ornaments went
+on, and when the silken knots were deftly accomplished, the lighthearted
+bridegroom performed a little dance of triumph about his idol, till she
+arrested him, beckoning as she spoke.
+
+"Manuel, I am waiting to assume the last best ornament you have given
+me, my handsome husband." Then, as he came to her laughing with frank
+pleasure at her praise, she added, "You, too, must look your best and
+bravest now, and remember you must enact the man tonight. Before Gilbert
+wear your stateliest aspect, your tenderest to me, your courtliest to
+his wife. You possess dramatic skill. Use it for my sake, and come for
+your reward when this night's work is done."
+
+The great hotel was swarming with life, ablaze with light, resonant with
+the tread of feet, the hum of voices, the musical din of the band, and
+full of the sights and sounds which fill such human hives at a
+fashionable watering place in the height of the season. As Manuel led
+his wife along the grand hall thronged with promenaders, his quick ear
+caught the whispered comments of the passers-by, and the fragmentary
+rumors concerning themselves amused him infinitely.
+
+"_Mon ami!_ There are five bridal couples here tonight, and there is the
+handsomest, richest, and most enchanting of them all. The groom is not
+yet twenty, they tell me, and the bride still younger. Behold them!"
+
+Manuel looked down at Pauline with a mirthful glance, but she had not
+heard.
+
+"See, Belle! Cubans; own half the island between them. Splendid, aren't
+they? Look at the diamonds on her lovely arms, and his ravishing
+moustache. Isn't he your ideal of Prince Djalma, in The Wandering Jew?"
+
+A pretty girl, forgetting propriety in interest, pointed as they passed.
+Manuel half-bowed to the audible compliment, and the blushing damsel
+vanished, but Pauline had not seen.
+
+"Jack, there's the owner of the black span you fell into raptures over.
+My lord and lady look as highbred as their stud. We'll patronize them!"
+
+Manuel muttered a disdainful "_Impertinente!_" between his teeth as he
+surveyed a brace of dandies with an air that augured ill for the
+patronage of Young America, but Pauline was unconscious of both
+criticism and reproof. A countercurrent held them stationary for a
+moment, and close behind them sounded a voice saying, confidentially, to
+some silent listener, "The Redmonds are here tonight, and I am curious
+to see how he bears his disappointment. You know he married for money,
+and was outwitted in the bargain; for his wife's fortune not only proves
+to be much less than he was led to believe, but is so tied up that he is
+entirely dependent upon her, and the bachelor debts he sold himself to
+liquidate still harass him, with a wife's reproaches to augment the
+affliction. To be ruled by a spoiled child's whims is a fit punishment
+for a man whom neither pride nor principle could curb before. Let us go
+and look at the unfortunate."
+
+Pauline heard now. Manuel felt her start, saw her flush and pale, then
+her eye lit, and the dark expression he dreaded to see settled on her
+face as she whispered, like a satanic echo, "Let us also go and look at
+this unfortunate."
+
+A jealous pang smote the young man's heart as he recalled the past.
+
+"You pity him, Pauline, and pity is akin to love."
+
+"I only pity what I respect. Rest content, my husband."
+
+Steadily her eyes met his, and the hand whose only ornament was a
+wedding ring went to meet the one folded on his arm with a confiding
+gesture that made the action a caress.
+
+"I will try to be, yet mine is a hard part," Manuel answered with a
+sigh, then silently they both paced on.
+
+Gilbert Redmond lounged behind his wife's chair, looking intensely
+bored.
+
+"Have you had enough of this folly, Babie?"
+
+"No, we have but just come. Let us dance."
+
+"Too late; they have begun."
+
+"Then go about with me. It's very tiresome sitting here."
+
+"It is too warm to walk in all that crowd, child."
+
+"You are so indolent! Tell me who people are as they pass. I know no one
+here."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+But his act belied the words, for as they passed his lips he rose erect,
+with a smothered exclamation and startled face, as if a ghost had
+suddenly confronted him. The throng had thinned, and as his wife
+followed the direction of his glance, she saw no uncanny apparition to
+cause such evident dismay, but a woman fair-haired, violet-eyed,
+blooming and serene, sweeping down the long hall with noiseless grace.
+An air of sumptuous life pervaded her, the shimmer of bridal snow
+surrounded her, bridal gifts shone on neck and arms, and bridal
+happiness seemed to touch her with its tender charm as she looked up at
+her companion, as if there were but one human being in the world to her.
+This companion, a man slender and tall, with a face delicately dark as a
+fine bronze, looked back at her with eyes as eloquent as her own, while
+both spoke rapidly and low in the melodious language which seems made
+for lover's lips.
+
+"Gilbert, who are they?"
+
+There was no answer, and before she could repeat the question the
+approaching pair paused before her, and the beautiful woman offered her
+hand, saying, with inquiring smiles, "Barbara, have you forgotten your
+early friend, Pauline?"
+
+Recognition came with the familiar name, and Mrs. Redmond welcomed the
+newcomer with a delight as unrestrained as if she were still the
+schoolgirl, Babie. Then, recovering herself, she said, with a pretty
+attempt at dignity, "Let me present my husband. Gilbert, come and
+welcome my friend Pauline Valary."
+
+Scarlet with shame, dumb with conflicting emotions, and utterly deserted
+by self-possession, Redmond stood with downcast eyes and agitated mien,
+suffering a year's remorse condensed into a moment. A mute gesture was
+all the greeting he could offer. Pauline slightly bent her haughty head
+as she answered, in a voice frostily sweet, "Your wife mistakes. Pauline
+Valary died three weeks ago, and Pauline Laroche rose from her ashes.
+Manuel, my schoolmate, Mrs. Redmond; Gilbert you already know."
+
+With the manly presence he could easily assume and which was henceforth
+to be his role in public, Manuel bowed courteously to the lady, coldly
+to the gentleman, and looked only at his wife. Mrs. Redmond, though
+childish, was observant; she glanced from face to face, divined a
+mystery, and spoke out at once.
+
+"Then you have met before? Gilbert, you have never told me this."
+
+"It was long ago--in Cuba. I believed they had forgotten me."
+
+"I never forget." And Pauline's eye turned on him with a look he dared
+not meet.
+
+Unsilenced by her husband's frown, Mrs. Redmond, intent on pleasing
+herself, drew her friend to the seat beside her as she said petulantly,
+"Gilbert tells me nothing, and I am constantly discovering things which
+might have given me pleasure had he only chosen to be frank. I've spoken
+of you often, yet he never betrayed the least knowledge of you, and I
+take it very ill of him, because I am sure he has not forgotten you. Sit
+here, Pauline, and let me tease you with questions, as I used to do so
+long ago. You were always patient with me, and though far more
+beautiful, your face is still the same kind one that comforted the
+little child at school. Gilbert, enjoy your friend, and leave us to
+ourselves until the dance is over."
+
+Pauline obeyed; but as she chatted, skillfully leading the young wife's
+conversation to her own affairs, she listened to the two voices behind
+her, watched the two figures reflected in the mirror before her, and
+felt a secret pride in Manuel's address, for it was evident that the
+former positions were renewed.
+
+The timid boy who had feared the sarcastic tongue of his guardian's
+guest, and shrunk from his presence to conceal the jealousy that was his
+jest, now stood beside his formal rival, serene and self-possessed, by
+far the manliest man of the two, for no shame daunted him, no fear
+oppressed him, no dishonorable deed left him at the mercy of another's
+tongue.
+
+Gilbert Redmond felt this keenly, and cursed the falsehood which had
+placed him in such an unenviable position. It was vain to assume the old
+superiority that was forfeited; but too much a man of the world to be
+long discomforted by any contretemps like this, he rapidly regained his
+habitual ease of manner, and avoiding the perilous past clung to the
+safer present, hoping, by some unguarded look or word, to fathom the
+purpose of his adversary, for such he knew the husband of Pauline must
+be at heart. But Manuel schooled his features, curbed his tongue, and
+when his hot blood tempted him to point his smooth speech with a taunt,
+or offer a silent insult with the eye, he remembered Pauline, looked
+down on the graceful head below, and forgot all other passions in that
+of love.
+
+"Gilbert, my shawl. The sea air chills me."
+
+"I forgot it, Babie."
+
+"Allow me to supply the want."
+
+Mindful of his wife's commands, Manuel seized this opportunity to win a
+glance of commendation from her. And taking the downy mantle that hung
+upon his arm, he wrapped the frail girl in it with a care that made the
+act as cordial as courteous. Mrs. Redmond felt the charm of his manner
+with the quickness of a woman, and sent a reproachful glance at Gilbert
+as she said plaintively, "Ah! It is evident that my honeymoon is over,
+and the assiduous lover replaced by the negligent husband. Enjoy your
+midsummer night's dream while you may, Pauline, and be ready for the
+awakening that must come."
+
+"Not to her, madame, for our honeymoon shall last till the golden
+wedding day comes round. Shall it not, carina?"
+
+"There is no sign of waning yet, Manuel," and Pauline looked up into her
+husband's face with a genuine affection which made her own more
+beautiful and filled his with a visible content. Gilbert read the
+glance, and in that instant suffered the first pang of regret that
+Pauline had foretold. He spoke abruptly, longing to be away.
+
+"Babie, we may dance now, if you will."
+
+"I am going, but not with you--so give me my fan, and entertain Pauline
+till my return."
+
+He unclosed his hand, but the delicately carved fan fell at his feet in
+a shower of ivory shreds--he had crushed it as he watched his first love
+with the bitter thought "It might have been!"
+
+"Forgive me, Babie, it was too frail for use; you should choose a
+stronger."
+
+"I will next time, and a gentler hand to hold it. Now, Monsieur Laroche,
+I am ready."
+
+Mrs. Redmond rose in a small bustle of satisfaction, shook out her
+flounces, glanced at the mirror, then Manuel led her away; and the other
+pair were left alone. Both felt a secret agitation quicken their breath
+and thrill along their nerves, but the woman concealed it best.
+Gilbert's eye wandered restlessly to and fro, while Pauline fixed her
+own on his as quietly as if he were the statue in the niche behind him.
+For a moment he tried to seem unconscious of it, then essayed to meet
+and conquer it, but failed signally and, driven to his last resources by
+that steady gaze, resolved to speak out and have all over before his
+wife's return. Assuming the seat beside her, he said, impetuously,
+"Pauline, take off your mask as I do mine--we are alone now, and may see
+each other as we are."
+
+Leaning deep into the crimson curve of the couch, with the indolent
+grace habitual to her, yet in strong contrast to the vigilant gleam of
+her eye, she swept her hand across her face as if obeying him, yet no
+change followed, as she said with a cold smile, "It is off; what next?"
+
+"Let me understand you. Did my letter reach your hands?"
+
+"A week before my marriage."
+
+He drew a long breath of relief, yet a frown gathered as he asked, like
+one loath and eager to be satisfied, "Your love died a natural death,
+then, and its murder does not lie at my door?"
+
+Pointing to the shattered toy upon the ground, she only echoed his own
+words. "It was too frail for use--I chose a stronger."
+
+It wounded, as she meant it should; and the evil spirit to whose
+guidance she had yielded herself exulted to see his self-love bleed, and
+pride vainly struggle to conceal the stab. He caught the expression in
+her averted glance, bent suddenly a fixed and scrutinizing gaze upon
+her, asking, below his breath, "Then why are you here to tempt me with
+the face that tempted me a year ago?"
+
+"I came to see the woman to whom you sold yourself. I have seen her, and
+am satisfied."
+
+Such quiet contempt iced her tones, such pitiless satisfaction shone
+through the long lashes that swept slowly down, after her eye had met
+and caused his own to fall again, that Gilbert's cheek burned as if the
+words had been a blow, and mingled shame and anger trembled in his
+voice.
+
+"Ah, you are quick to read our secret, for you possess the key. Have you
+no fear that I may read your own, and tell the world you sold your
+beauty for a name and fortune? Your bargain is a better one than mine,
+but I know you too well, though your fetters are diamonds and your
+master a fond boy."
+
+She had been prepared for this, and knew she had a shield in the real
+regard she bore her husband, for though sisterly, it was sincere. She
+felt its value now, for it gave her courage to confront the spirit of
+retaliation she had roused, and calmness to answer the whispered taunt
+with an unruffled mien, as lifting her white arm she let its single
+decoration drop glittering to her lap.
+
+"You see my 'fetters' are as loose as they are light, and nothing binds
+me but my will. Read my heart, if you can. You will find there contempt
+for a love so poor that it feared poverty; pity for a man who dared not
+face the world and conquer it, as a girl had done before him, and
+gratitude that I have found my 'master' in a truehearted boy, not a
+falsehearted man. If I am a slave, I never know it. Can you say as
+much?"
+
+Her woman's tongue avenged her, and Gilbert owned his defeat. Pain
+quenched the ire of his glance, remorse subdued his pride,
+self-condemnation compelled him to ask, imploringly, "Pauline, when may
+I hope for pardon?"
+
+"Never."
+
+The stern utterance of the word dismayed him, and, like one shut out
+from hope, he rose, as if to leave her, but paused irresolutely, looked
+back, then sank down again, as if constrained against his will by a
+longing past control. If she had doubted her power this action set the
+doubt at rest, as the haughtiest nature she had known confessed it by a
+bittersweet complaint. Eyeing her wistfully, tenderly, Gilbert murmured,
+in the voice of long ago, "Why do I stay to wound and to be wounded by
+the hand that once caressed me? Why do I find more pleasure in your
+contempt than in another woman's praise, and feel myself transported
+into the delights of that irrecoverable past, now grown the sweetest,
+saddest memory of my life? Send me away, Pauline, before the old charm
+asserts its power, and I forget that I am not the happy lover of a year
+ago."
+
+"Leave me then, Gilbert. Good night."
+
+Half unconsciously, the former softness stole into her voice as it
+lingered on his name. The familiar gesture accompanied the words, the
+old charm did assert itself, and for an instant changed the cold woman
+into the ardent girl again. Gilbert did not go but, with a hasty glance
+down the deserted hall behind him, captured and kissed the hand he had
+lost, passionately whispering, "Pauline, I love you still, and that look
+assures me that you have forgiven, forgotten, and kept a place for me in
+that deep heart of yours. It is too late to deny it. I have seen the
+tender eyes again, and the sight has made me the proudest, happiest man
+that walks the world tonight, slave though I am."
+
+Over cheek and forehead rushed the treacherous blood as the violet eyes
+filled and fell before his own, and in the glow of mingled pain and fear
+that stirred her blood, Pauline, for the first time, owned the peril of
+the task she had set herself, saw the dangerous power she possessed, and
+felt the buried passion faintly moving in its grave. Indignant at her
+own weakness, she took refuge in the memory of her wrong, controlled the
+rebel color, steeled the front she showed him, and with feminine skill
+mutely conveyed the rebuke she would not trust herself to utter, by
+stripping the glove from the hand he had touched and dropping it
+disdainfully as if unworthy of its place. Gilbert had not looked for
+such an answer, and while it baffled him it excited his man's spirit to
+rebel against her silent denial. With a bitter laugh he snatched up the
+glove.
+
+"I read a defiance in your eye as you flung this down. I accept the
+challenge, and will keep gage until I prove myself the victor. I have
+asked for pardon. You refuse it. I have confessed my love. You scorn it.
+I have possessed myself of your secret, yet you deny it. Now we will try
+our strength together, and leave those children to their play."
+
+"We are the children, and we play with edge tools. There has been enough
+of this, there must be no more." Pauline rose with her haughtiest mien,
+and the brief command, "Take me to Manuel."
+
+Silently Gilbert offered his arm, and silently she rejected it.
+
+"Will you accept nothing from me?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+Side by side they passed through the returning throng till Mrs. Redmond
+joined them, looking blithe and bland with the exhilaration of gallantry
+and motion. Manuel's first glance was at Pauline, his second at her
+companion; there was a shadow upon the face of each, which seemed
+instantly to fall upon his own as he claimed his wife with a masterful
+satisfaction as novel as becoming, and which prompted her to whisper,
+"You enact your role to the life, and shall enjoy a foretaste of your
+reward at once. I want excitement; let us show these graceless, frozen
+people the true art of dancing, and electrify them with the life and
+fire of a Cuban valse."
+
+Manuel kindled at once, and Pauline smiled stealthily as she glanced
+over her shoulder from the threshold of the dancing hall, for her
+slightest act, look, and word had their part to play in that night's
+drama.
+
+"Gilbert, if you are tired I will go now."
+
+"Thank you, I begin to find it interesting. Let us watch the dancers."
+
+Mrs. Redmond accepted the tardy favor, wondering at his unwonted
+animation, for never had she seen such eagerness in his countenance,
+such energy in his manner as he pressed through the crowd and won a
+place where they could freely witness one of those exhibitions of
+fashionable figurante which are nightly to be seen at such resorts. Many
+couples were whirling around the white hall, but among them one pair
+circled with slowly increasing speed, in perfect time to the inspiring
+melody of trumpet, flute, and horn, that seemed to sound for them alone.
+Many paused to watch them, for they gave to the graceful pastime the
+enchantment which few have skill enough to lend it, and made it a
+spectacle of life-enjoying youth, to be remembered long after the music
+ceased and the agile feet were still.
+
+Gilbert's arm was about his little wife to shield her from the pressure
+of the crowd, and as they stood his hold unconsciously tightened, till,
+marveling at this unwonted care, she looked up to thank him with a happy
+glance and discovered that his eye rested on a single pair, kindling as
+they approached, keenly scanning every gesture as they floated by,
+following them with untiring vigilance through the many-colored mazes
+they threaded with such winged steps, while his breath quickened, his
+hand kept time, and every sense seemed to own the intoxication of the
+scene. Sorrowfully she too watched this pair, saw their grace, admired
+their beauty, envied their happiness; for, short as her wedded life had
+been, the thorns already pierced her through the roses, and with each
+airy revolution of those figures, dark and bright, her discontent
+increased, her wonder deepened, her scrutiny grew keener, for she knew
+no common interest held her husband there, fascinated, flushed, and
+excited as if his heart beat responsive to the rhythmic rise and fall of
+that booted foot and satin slipper. The music ended with a crash, the
+crowd surged across the floor, and the spell was broken. Like one but
+half disenchanted, Gilbert stood a moment, then remembered his wife, and
+looking down met brown eyes, full of tears, fastened on his face.
+
+"Tired so soon, Babie? Or in a pet because I cannot change myself into a
+thistledown and float about with you, like Manuel and Pauline?"
+
+"Neither; I was only wishing that you loved me as he loves her, and
+hoping he would never tire of her, they are so fond and charming now.
+How long have you known them--and where?"
+
+"I shall have no peace until I tell you. I passed a single summer with
+them in a tropical paradise, where we swung half the day in hammocks,
+under tamarind and almond trees; danced half the night to music, of
+which this seems but a faint echo; and led a life of luxurious delight
+in an enchanted climate, where all is so beautiful and brilliant that
+its memory haunts a life as pressed flowers sweeten the leaves of a dull
+book."
+
+"Why did you leave it then?"
+
+"To marry you, child."
+
+"That was a regretful sigh, as if I were not worth the sacrifice. Let us
+go back and enjoy it together."
+
+"If you were dying for it, I would not take you to Cuba. It would be
+purgatory, not paradise, now."
+
+"How stern you look, how strangely you speak. Would you not go to save
+your own life, Gilbert?"
+
+"I would not cross the room to do that, much less the sea."
+
+"Why do you both love and dread it? Don't frown, but tell me. I have a
+right to know."
+
+"Because the bitterest blunder of my life was committed there--a blunder
+that I never can repair in this world, and may be damned for in the
+next. Rest satisfied with this, Babie, lest you prove like Bluebeard's
+wife, and make another skeleton in my closet, which has enough already."
+
+Strange regret was in his voice, strange gloom fell upon his face; but
+though rendered doubly curious by the change, Mrs. Redmond dared not
+question further and, standing silent, furtively scanned the troubled
+countenance beside her. Gilbert spoke first, waking out of his sorrowful
+reverie with a start.
+
+"Pauline is coming. Say adieu, not au revoir, for tomorrow we must leave
+this place."
+
+His words were a command, his aspect one of stern resolve, though the
+intensest longing mingled with the dark look he cast on the approaching
+pair. The tone, the glance displeased his willful wife, who loved to use
+her power and exact obedience where she had failed to win affection,
+often ruling imperiously when a tender word would have made her happy to
+submit.
+
+"Gilbert, you take no thought for my pleasures though you pursue your
+own at my expense. Your neglect forces me to find solace and
+satisfaction where I can, and you have forfeited your right to command
+or complain. I love Pauline, I am happy with her, therefore I shall stay
+until we tire of one another. I am a burden to you; go if you will."
+
+"You know I cannot without you, Babie. I ask it as a favor. For my sake,
+for your own, I implore you to come away."
+
+"Gilbert, do you love her?"
+
+She seized his arm and forced an answer by the energy of her sharply
+whispered question. He saw that it was vain to dissemble, yet replied
+with averted head, "I did and still remember it."
+
+"And she? Did she return your love?"
+
+"I believed so; but she forgot me when I went. She married Manuel and is
+happy. Babie, let me go!"
+
+"No! you shall stay and feel a little of the pain I feel when I look
+into your heart and find I have no place there. It is this which has
+stood between us and made all my efforts vain. I see it now and despise
+you for the falsehood you have shown me, vowing you loved no one but me
+until I married you, then letting me so soon discover that I was only an
+encumbrance to your enjoyment of the fortune I possessed. You treat me
+like a child, but I suffer like a woman, and you shall share my
+suffering, because you might have spared me, and you did not. Gilbert,
+you shall stay."
+
+"Be it so, but remember I have warned you."
+
+An exultant expression broke through the gloom of her husband's face as
+he answered with the grim satisfaction of one who gave restraint to the
+mind, and stood ready to follow whatever impulse should sway him next.
+His wife trembled inwardly at what she had done, but was too proud to
+recall her words and felt a certain bitter pleasure in the excitement of
+the new position she had taken, the new interest given to her listless
+life.
+
+Pauline and Manuel found them standing silently together, for a moment
+had done the work of years and raised a barrier between them never to be
+swept away.
+
+Mrs. Redmond spoke first, and with an air half resentful, half
+triumphant:
+
+"Pauline, this morose husband of mine says we must leave tomorrow. But
+in some things I rule; this is one of them. Therefore we remain and go
+with you to the mountains when we are tired of the gay life here. So
+smile and submit, Gilbert, else these friends will count your society no
+favor. Would you not fancy, from the aspect he thinks proper to assume,
+that I had sentenced him to a punishment, not a pleasure?"
+
+"Perhaps you have unwittingly, Babie. Marriage is said to cancel the
+follies of the past, but not those of the future, I believe; and, as
+there are many temptations to an idle man in a place like this,
+doubtless your husband is wise enough to own that he dares not stay but
+finds discretion the better part of valor."
+
+Nothing could be softer than the tone in which these words were uttered,
+nothing sharper than the hidden taunt conveyed, but Gilbert only laughed
+a scornful laugh as he fixed his keen eyes full upon her and took her
+bouquet with the air of one assuming former rights.
+
+"My dear Pauline, discretion is the last virtue I should expect to be
+accused of by you; but if valor consists in daring all things, I may lay
+claim to it without its 'better part,' for temptation is my delight--the
+stronger the better. Have no fears for me, my friend. I gladly accept
+Babie's decree and, ignoring the last ten years, intend to begin life
+anew, having discovered a sauce piquante which will give the stalest
+pleasures a redoubled zest. I am unfortunate tonight, and here is a
+second wreck; this I can rebuild happily. Allow me to do so, for I
+remember you once praised my skill in floral architecture."
+
+With an air of eager gallantry in strange contrast to the malign
+expression of his countenance, Gilbert knelt to regather the flowers
+which a careless gesture of his own had scattered from their jeweled
+holder. His wife turned to speak to Manuel, and, yielding to the
+unconquerable anxiety his reckless manner awoke, Pauline whispered below
+her breath as she bent as if to watch the work, "Gilbert, follow your
+first impulse, and go tomorrow."
+
+"Nothing shall induce me to."
+
+"I warn you harm will come of it." "Let it come; I am past fear now."
+
+"Shun me for Babie's sake, if not for your own."
+
+"Too late for that; she is headstrong--let her suffer."
+
+"Have you no power, Gilbert?"
+
+"None over her, much over you."
+
+"We will prove that!"
+
+"We will!" Rapidly as words could shape them, these questions and
+answers fell, and with their utterance the last generous feeling died in
+Pauline's breast; for as she received the flowers, now changed from a
+love token to a battle gage, she saw the torn glove still crushed in
+Gilbert's hand, and silently accepted his challenge to the tournament so
+often held between man and woman--a tournament where the keen tongue is
+the lance, pride the shield, passion the fiery steed, and the hardest
+heart the winner of the prize, which seldom fails to prove a barren
+honor, ending in remorse.
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+For several days the Cubans were almost invisible, appearing only for a
+daily drive, a twilight saunter on the beach, or a brief visit to the
+ballroom, there to enjoy the excitement of the pastime in which they
+both excelled. Their apartments were in the quietest wing of the hotel,
+and from the moment of their occupancy seemed to acquire all the charms
+of home. The few guests admitted felt the atmosphere of poetry and peace
+that pervaded the nest which Love, the worker of miracles, had built
+himself even under that tumultuous roof. Strollers in the halls or along
+the breezy verandas often paused to listen to the music of instrument or
+voice which came floating out from these sequestered rooms. Frequent
+laughter and the murmur of conversation proved that ennui was unknown,
+and a touch of romance inevitably enhanced the interest wakened by the
+beautiful young pair, always together, always happy, never weary of the
+dolce far niente of this summer life.
+
+In a balcony like a hanging garden, sheltered from the sun by blossoming
+shrubs and vines that curtained the green nook with odorous shade,
+Pauline lay indolently swinging in a gaily fringed hammock as she had
+been wont to do in Cuba, then finding only pleasure in the luxury of
+motion which now failed to quiet her unrest. Manuel had put down the
+book to which she no longer listened and, leaning his head upon his
+hand, sat watching her as she swayed to and fro with thoughtful eyes
+intent upon the sea, whose murmurous voice possessed a charm more
+powerful than his own. Suddenly he spoke:
+
+"Pauline, I cannot understand you! For three weeks we hurried east and
+west to find this man, yet when found you shun him and seem content to
+make my life a heaven upon earth. I sometimes fancy that you have
+resolved to let the past sleep, but the hope dies as soon as born, for
+in moments like this I see that, though you devote yourself to me, the
+old purpose is unchanged, and I marvel why you pause."
+
+Her eyes came back from their long gaze and settled on him full of an
+intelligence which deepened his perplexity. "You have not learned to
+know me yet; death is not more inexorable or time more tireless than I.
+This week has seemed one of indolent delight to you. To me it has been
+one of constant vigilance and labor, for scarcely a look, act, or word
+of mine has been without effect. At first I secluded myself that Gilbert
+might contrast our life with his and, believing us all and all to one
+another, find impotent regret his daily portion. Three days ago accident
+placed an unexpected weapon in my hand which I have used in silence,
+lest in spite of promises you should rebel and end his trial too soon.
+Have you no suspicion of my meaning?"
+
+"None. You are more mysterious than ever, and I shall, in truth, believe
+you are the enchantress I have so often called you if your spells work
+invisibly."
+
+"They do not, and I use no supernatural arts, as I will prove to you.
+Take my lorgnette that lies behind you, part the leaves where the green
+grapes hang thickest, look up at the little window in the shadowy angle
+of the low roof opposite, and tell me what you see."
+
+"Nothing but a half-drawn curtain."
+
+"Ah! I must try the ruse that first convinced me. Do not show yourself,
+but watch, and if you speak, let it be in Spanish."
+
+Leaving her airy cradle, Pauline bent over the balcony as if to gather
+the climbing roses that waved their ruddy clusters in the wind. Before
+the third stem was broken Manuel whispered, "I see the curtain move; now
+comes the outline of a head, and now a hand, with some bright object in
+it. Santo Pablo! It is a man staring at you as coolly as if you were a
+lady in a balcony. What prying rascal is it?"
+
+"Gilbert."
+
+"Impossible! He is a gentleman."
+
+"If gentlemen play the traitor and the spy, then he is one. I am not
+mistaken; for since the glitter of his glass first arrested me I have
+watched covertly, and several trials as successful as the present have
+confirmed the suspicion which Babie's innocent complaints of his long
+absences aroused. Now do you comprehend why I remained in these rooms
+with the curtains seldom drawn? Why I swung the hammock here and let you
+sing and read to me while I played with your hair or leaned upon your
+shoulder? Why I have been all devotion and made this balcony a little
+stage for the performance of our version of the honeymoon for one
+spectator?"
+
+Still mindful of the eager eyes upon her, Pauline had been fastening the
+roses in her bosom as she spoke, and ended with a silvery laugh that
+made the silence musical with its heartsome sound. As she paused, Manuel
+flung down the lorgnette and was striding past her with ireful
+impetuosity, but the white arms took him captive, adding another figure
+to the picture framed by the green arch as she whispered decisively, "No
+farther! There must be no violence. You promised obedience and I exact
+it. Do you think detection to a man so lost to honor would wound as
+deeply as the sights which make his daily watch a torment? Or that a
+blow would be as hard to bear as the knowledge that his own act has
+placed you where you are and made him what he is? Silent contempt is the
+law now, so let this insult pass, unclench your hand and turn that
+defiant face to me, while I console you for submission with a kiss."
+
+He yielded to the command enforced by the caress but drew her jealously
+from sight, and still glanced rebelliously through the leaves, asking
+with a frown, "Why show me this if I may not resent it? How long must I
+bear with this man? Tell me your design, else I shall mar it in some
+moment when hatred of him conquers love of you."
+
+"I will, for it is tune, because though I have taken the first step you
+must take the second. I showed you this that you might find action
+pleasanter than rest, and you must bear with this man a little longer
+for my sake, but I will give you an amusement to beguile the time. Long
+ago you told me that Gilbert was a gambler. I would not believe it then,
+now I can believe anything, and you can convince the world of this vice
+of his as speedily as you will."
+
+"Do you wish me to become a gambler that I may prove him one? I also
+told you that he was suspected of dishonorable play--shall I load the
+dice and mark the cards to catch him in his own snares?"
+
+Manuel spoke bitterly, for his high spirit chafed at the task assigned
+him; womanly wiles seemed more degrading than the masculine method of
+retaliation, in which strength replaces subtlety and speedier vengeance
+brings speedier satisfaction. But Pauline, fast learning to play upon
+that mysterious instrument, the human heart, knew when to stimulate and
+when to soothe.
+
+"Do not reproach me that I point out a safer mode of operation than your
+own. You would go to Gilbert and by a hot word, a rash act, put your
+life and my happiness into his hands, for though dueling is forbidden
+here, he would not hesitate to break all laws, human or divine, if by so
+doing he could separate us. What would you gain by it? If you kill him
+he is beyond our reach forever, and a crime remains to be atoned for. If
+he kill you your blood will be upon my head, and where should I find
+consolation for the loss of the one heart always true and tender?"
+
+With the inexplicable prescience which sometimes foreshadows coming
+ills, she clung to him as if a vision of the future dimly swept before
+her, but he only saw the solicitude it was a sweet surprise to find he
+had awakened, and in present pleasure forgot past pain.
+
+"You shall not suffer from this man any grief that I can shield you
+from, rest assured of that, my heart. I will be patient, though your
+ways are not mine, for the wrong was yours, and the retribution shall be
+such as you decree."
+
+"Then hear your task and see the shape into which circumstances have
+molded my design. I would have you exercise a self-restraint that shall
+leave Gilbert no hold upon you, accept all invitations like that which
+you refused when we passed him on the threshold of the billiard room an
+hour ago, and seem to find in such amusements the same fascination as
+himself. Your skill in games of chance excels his, as you proved at home
+where these pastimes lose their disreputable aspect by being openly
+enjoyed. Therefore I would have you whet this appetite of his by losing
+freely at first--he will take a grim delight in lessening the fortune he
+covets--then exert all your skill till he is deeply in your debt. He has
+nothing but what is doled out to him by Babie's father, I find; he dare
+not ask help there for such a purpose; other resources have failed else
+he would not have married; and if the sum be large enough, it lays him
+under an obligation which will be a thorn in his flesh, the sharper for
+your knowledge of his impotence to draw it out. When this is done, or
+even while it is in progress, I would have you add the pain of a new
+jealousy to the old. He neglects this young wife of his, and she is
+eager to recover the affections she believes she once possessed. Help
+her, and teach Gilbert the value of what he now despises. You are young,
+comely, accomplished, and possessed of many graces more attractive than
+you are conscious of; your southern birth and breeding gift you with a
+winning warmth of manners in strong contrast to the colder natures
+around you; and your love for me lends an almost tender deference to
+your intercourse with all womankind. Amuse, console this poor girl, and
+show her husband what he should be; I have no fear of losing your heart
+nor need you fear for hers; she is one of those spaniel-like creatures
+who love the hand that strikes them and fawn upon the foot that spurns
+them."
+
+"Am I to be the sole actor in the drama of deceit? While I woo Babie,
+what will you do, Pauline?"
+
+"Let Gilbert woo me--have patience till you understand my meaning; he
+still loves me and believes I still return that love. I shall not
+undeceive him yet, but let silence seem to confess what I do not own in
+words. He fed me with false promises, let me build my life's happiness
+on baseless hopes, and rudely woke me when he could delude no longer,
+leaving me to find I had pursued a shadow. I will do the same. He shall
+follow me undaunted, undeterred by all obstacles, all ties; shall stake
+his last throw and lose it, for when the crowning moment comes I shall
+show him that through me he is made bankrupt in love, honor, liberty,
+and hope, tell him I am yours entirely and forever, then vanish like an
+ignis-fatuus, leaving him to the darkness of despair and defeat. Is not
+this a better retribution than the bullet that would give him peace at
+once?"
+
+Boy, lover, husband though he was, Manuel saw and stood aghast at the
+baleful spirit which had enslaved this woman, crushing all generous
+impulses, withering all gentle charities, and making her the saddest
+spectacle this world can show--one human soul rebelling against
+Providence, to become the nemesis of another. Involuntarily he recoiled
+from her, exclaiming, "Pauline! Are you possessed of a devil?"
+
+"Yes! One that will not be cast out till every sin, shame, and sorrow
+mental ingenuity can conceive and inflict has been heaped on that man's
+head. I thought I should be satisfied with one accusing look, one bitter
+word; I am not, for the evil genii once let loose cannot be recaptured.
+Once I ruled it, now it rules me, and there is no turning back. I have
+come under the law of fate, and henceforth the powers I possess will
+ban, not bless, for I am driven to whet and wield them as weapons which
+may win me success at the price of my salvation. It is not yet too late
+for you to shun the spiritual contagion I bear about me. Choose now, and
+abide by that choice without a shadow of turning, as I abide by mine.
+Take me as I am; help me willingly and unwillingly; and in the end
+receive the promised gift--years like the days you have called heaven
+upon earth. Or retract the vows you plighted, receive again the heart
+and name you gave me, and live unvexed by the stormy nature time alone
+can tame. Here is the ring. Shall I restore or keep it, Manuel?"
+
+Never had she looked more beautiful as she stood there, an image of
+will, daring, defiant, and indomitable, with eyes darkened by intensity
+of emotion, voice half sad, half stern, and outstretched hand on which
+the wedding ring no longer shone. She felt her power, yet was wary
+enough to assure it by one bold appeal to the strongest element of her
+husband's character: passions, not principles, were the allies she
+desired, and before the answer came she knew that she had gained them at
+the cost of innocence and self-respect.
+
+As Manuel listened, an expression like a dark reflection of her own
+settled on his face; a year of youth seemed to drop away; and with the
+air of one who puts fear behind him, he took the hand, replaced the
+ring, resolutely accepted the hard conditions, and gave all to love,
+only saying as he had said before, "Soul and body, I belong to you; do
+with me as you will."
+
+A fortnight later Pauline sat alone, waiting for her husband. Under the
+pretext of visiting a friend, she had absented herself a week, that
+Manuel might give himself entirely to the distasteful task she set him.
+He submitted to the separation, wrote daily, but sent no tidings of his
+progress, told her nothing when they met that night, and had left her an
+hour before asking her to have patience till he could show his finished
+work. Now, with her eye upon the door, her ear alert to catch the coming
+step, her mind disturbed by contending hopes and fears, she sat waiting
+with the vigilant immobility of an Indian on the watch. She had not long
+to look and listen. Manuel entered hastily, locked the door, closed the
+windows, dropped the curtains, then paused in the middle of the room and
+broke into a low, triumphant laugh as he eyed his wife with an
+expression she had never seen in those dear eyes before. It startled
+her, and, scarcely knowing what to desire or dread, she asked eagerly,
+"You are come to tell me you have prospered."
+
+"Beyond your hopes, for the powers of darkness seem to help us, and lead
+the man to his destruction faster than any wiles of ours can do. I am
+tired, let me lie here and rest. I have earned it, so when I have told
+all say, 'Love, you have done well,' and I am satisfied."
+
+He threw himself along the couch where she still sat and laid his head
+in her silken lap, her cool hand on his hot forehead, and continued in a
+muffled voice.
+
+"You know how eagerly Gilbert took advantage of my willingness to play,
+and soon how recklessly he pursued it, seeming to find the satisfaction
+you foretold, till, obeying your commands, I ceased losing and won sums
+which surprised me. Then you went, but I was not idle, and in the effort
+to extricate himself, Gilbert plunged deeper into debt; for my desire to
+please you seemed to gift me with redoubled skill. Two days ago I
+refused to continue the unequal conflict, telling him to give himself no
+uneasiness, for I could wait. You were right in thinking it would
+oppress him to be under any obligation to me, but wrong in believing he
+would endure, and will hardly be prepared for the desperate step he took
+to free himself. That night he played falsely, was detected, and though
+his opponent generously promised silence for Babie's sake, the affair
+stole out--he is shunned and this resource has failed. I thought he had
+no other, but yesterday he came to me with a strange expression of
+relief, discharged the debt to the last farthing, then hinted that my
+friendship with his wife was not approved by him and must cease. This
+proves that I have obeyed you in all things, though the comforting of
+Babie was an easy task, for, both loving you, our bond of sympathy and
+constant theme has been Pauline and her perfections."
+
+"Hush! No praise--it is a mockery. I am what one man's perfidy has made;
+I may yet learn to be worthy of another man's devotion. What more,
+Manuel?"
+
+"I thought I should have only a defeat to show you, but today has given
+me a strange success. At noon a gentleman arrived and asked for Gilbert.
+He was absent, but upon offering information relative to the time of his
+return, which proved my intimacy with him, this Seguin entered into
+conversation with me. His evident desire to avoid Mrs. Redmond and
+waylay her husband interested me, and when he questioned me somewhat
+closely concerning Gilbert's habits and movements of late, my suspicions
+were roused; and on mentioning the debt so promptly discharged, I
+received a confidence that startled me. In a moment of despair Gilbert
+had forged the name of his former friend, whom he believed abroad, had
+drawn the money and freed himself from my power, but not for long. The
+good fortune which has led him safely through many crooked ways seems to
+have deserted him in this strait. For the forgery was badly executed,
+inspection raised doubts, and Seguin, just returned, was at his banker's
+an hour after Gilbert, to prove the fraud; he came hither at once to
+accuse him of it and made me his confidant. What would you have had me
+do, Pauline? Time was short, and I could not wait for you."
+
+"How can I tell at once? Why pause to ask? What did you do?"
+
+"Took a leaf from your book and kept accusation, punishment, and power
+in my own hands, to be used in your behalf. I returned the money,
+secured the forged check, and prevailed on Seguin to leave the matter in
+my hands, while he departed as quietly as he had come. Babie's presence
+when we met tonight prevented my taking you into my counsels. I had
+prepared this surprise for you and felt a secret pride in working it out
+alone. An hour ago I went to watch for Gilbert. He came, I took him to
+his rooms, told him what I had done, added that compassion for his wife
+had actuated me. I left him saying the possession of the check was a
+full equivalent for the money, which I now declined to receive from such
+dishonorable hands. Are you satisfied, Pauline?"
+
+With countenance and gestures full of exultation she sprang up to pace
+the room, exclaiming, as she seized the forged paper, "Yes, that stroke
+was superb! How strangely the plot thickens. Surely the powers of
+darkness are working with us and have put this weapon in our hands when
+that I forged proved useless. By means of this we have a hold upon him
+which nothing can destroy unless he escape by death. Will he, Manuel?"
+
+"No; there was more wrath than shame in his demeanor when I accused him.
+He hates me too much to die yet, and had I been the only possessor of
+this fatal fact, I fancy it might have gone hard with me; for if ever
+there was murder in a man's heart it was in his when I showed him that
+paper and then replaced it next the little poniard you smile at me for
+wearing. This is over. What next, my queen?"
+
+There was energy in the speaker's tone but none in attitude or aspect,
+as, still lying where she had left him, he pillowed his head upon his
+arm and turned toward her a face already worn and haggard with the
+feverish weariness that had usurped the blithe serenity which had been
+his chiefest charm a month ago. Pausing in her rapid walk, as if
+arrested by the change that seemed to strike her suddenly, she recalled
+her thoughts from the dominant idea of her life and, remembering the
+youth she was robbing of its innocent delights, answered the wistful
+look which betrayed the hunger of a heart she had never truly fed, as
+she knelt beside her husband and, laying her soft cheek to his,
+whispered in her tenderest accents, "I am not wholly selfish or
+ungrateful, Manuel. You shall rest now while I sing to you, and tomorrow
+we will go away among the hills and leave behind us for a time the dark
+temptation which harms you through me."
+
+"No! Finish what you have begun. I will have all or nothing, for if we
+pause now you will bring me a divided mind, and I shall possess only the
+shadow of a wife. Take Gilbert and Babie with us, and end this devil's
+work without delay. Hark! What is that?"
+
+Steps came flying down the long hall, a hand tried the lock, then beat
+impetuously upon the door, and a low voice whispered with shrill
+importunity, "Let me in! Oh, let me in!"
+
+Manuel obeyed the urgent summons, and Mrs. Redmond, half dressed, with
+streaming hair and terror-stricken face, fled into Pauline's arms,
+crying incoherently, "Save me! Keep me! I never can go back to him; he
+said I was a burden and a curse, and wished I never had been born!"
+
+"What has happened, Babie? We are your friends. Tell us, and let us
+comfort and protect you if we can."
+
+But for a time speech was impossible, and the poor girl wept with a
+despairing vehemence sad to see, till their gentle efforts soothed her;
+and, sitting by Pauline, she told her trouble, looking oftenest at
+Manuel, who stood before them, as if sure of redress from him.
+
+"When I left here an hour or more ago I found my rooms still empty, and,
+though I had not seen my husband since morning, I knew he would be
+displeased to find me waiting, so I cried myself to sleep and dreamed of
+the happy time when he was kind, till the sound of voices woke me. I
+heard Gilbert say, 'Babie is with your wife, her maid tells me;
+therefore we are alone here. What is this mysterious affair, Laroche?'
+That tempted me to listen, and then, Manuel, I learned all the shame and
+misery you so generously tried to spare me. How can I ever repay you,
+ever love and honor you enough for such care of one so helpless and
+forlorn as I?"
+
+"I am repaid already. Let that pass, and tell what brings you here with
+such an air of fright and fear?"
+
+"When you were gone he came straight to the inner room in search of
+something, saw me, and knew I must have heard all he had concealed from
+me so carefully. If you have ever seen him when that fierce temper of
+his grows ungovernable, you can guess what I endured. He said such cruel
+things I could not bear it, and cried out that I would come to you, for
+I was quite wild with terror, grief, and shame, that seemed like oil to
+fire. He swore I should not, and oh, Pauline, he struck me! See, if I do
+not tell the living truth!"
+
+Trembling with excitement, Mrs. Redmond pushed back the wide sleeve of
+her wrapper and showed the red outline of a heavy hand. Manuel set his
+teeth and stamped his foot into the carpet with an indignant exclamation
+and the brief question, "Then you left him, Babie?"
+
+"Yes, although he locked me in my room, saying the law gave him the
+right to teach obedience. I flung on these clothes, crept noiselessly
+along the balcony till the hall window let me in, and then I ran to you.
+He will come for me. Can he take me away? Must I go back to suffer any
+more?"
+
+In the very act of uttering the words, Mrs. Redmond clung to Manuel with
+a cry of fear, for on the threshold stood her husband. A comprehensive
+glance seemed to stimulate his wrath and lend the hardihood wherewith to
+confront the three, saying sternly as he beckoned, "Babie, I am waiting
+for you."
+
+She did not speak, but still clung to Manuel as if he were her only
+hope. A glance from Pauline checked the fiery words trembling on his
+lips, and he too stood silent while she answered with a calmness that
+amazed him:
+
+"Your wife has chosen us her guardians, and I think you will scarcely
+venture to use force again with two such witnesses as these to prove
+that you have forfeited your right to her obedience and justify the step
+she has taken."
+
+With one hand she uncovered the discolored arm, with the other held the
+forgery before him. For a moment Gilbert stood daunted by these mute
+accusations, but just then his ire burned hottest against Manuel; and
+believing that he could deal a double blow by wounding Pauline through
+her husband, he ignored her presence and, turning to the young man,
+asked significantly, "Am I to understand that you refuse me my wife, and
+prefer to abide by the consequences of such an act?"
+
+Calmed by Pauline's calmness, Manuel only drew the trembling creature
+closer, and answered with his haughtiest mien, "I do; spare yourself the
+labor of insulting me, for having placed yourself beyond the reach of a
+gentleman's weapon, I shall accept no challenge from a--"
+
+A soft hand at his lips checked the opprobrious word, as Babie, true
+woman through it all, whispered with a broken sob, "Spare him, for I
+loved him once."
+
+Gilbert Redmond had a heart, and, sinful though it was, this generous
+forbearance wrung it with a momentary pang of genuine remorse, too
+swiftly followed by a selfish hope that all was not lost if through his
+wife he could retain a hold upon the pair which now possessed for him
+the strong attraction of both love and hate. In that brief pause this
+thought came, was accepted and obeyed, for, as if yielding to an
+uncontrollable impulse of penitent despair, he stretched his arms to his
+wife, saying humbly, imploringly, "Babie, come back to me, and teach me
+how I may retrieve the past. I freely confess I bitterly repent my
+manifold transgressions, and submit to your decree alone; but in
+executing justice, oh, remember mercy! Remember that I was too early
+left fatherless, motherless, and went astray for want of some kind heart
+to guide and cherish me. There is still time. Be compassionate and save
+me from myself. Am I not punished enough? Must death be my only
+comforter? Babie, when all others cast me off, will you too forsake me?"
+
+"No, I will not! Only love me, and I can forgive, forget, and still be
+happy!"
+
+Pauline was right. The spaniel-like nature still loved the hand that
+struck it, and Mrs. Redmond joyfully returned to the arms from which she
+had so lately fled. The tenderest welcome she had ever received from him
+welcomed the loving soul whose faith was not yet dead, for Gilbert felt
+the value this once neglected possession had suddenly acquired, and he
+held it close; yet as he soothed with gentle touch and tone, could not
+forbear a glance of triumph at the spectators of the scene.
+
+Pauline met it with that inscrutable smile of hers, and a look of
+intelligence toward her husband, as she said, "Did I not prophesy truly,
+Manuel? Be kind to her, Gilbert, and when next we meet show us a happier
+wife than the one now sobbing on your shoulder. Babie, good night and
+farewell, for we are off to the mountains in the morning."
+
+"Oh, let us go with you as you promised! You know our secret, you pity
+me and will help Gilbert to be what he should. I cannot live at home,
+and places like this will seem so desolate when you and Manuel are gone.
+May we, can we be with you a little longer?"
+
+"If Gilbert wishes it and Manuel consents, we will bear and forbear much
+for your sake, my poor child."
+
+Pauline's eye said, "Dare you go?" and Gilbert's answered, "Yes," as the
+two met with a somber fire in each; but his lips replied, "Anywhere with
+you, Babie," and Manuel took Mrs. Redmond's hand with a graceful warmth
+that touched her deeper than his words.
+
+"Your example teaches me the beauty of compassion, and Pauline's friends
+are mine."
+
+"Always so kind to me! Dear Manuel, I never can forget it, though I have
+nothing to return but this," and, like a grateful child, she lifted up
+her innocent face so wistfully he could only bend his tall head to
+receive the kiss she offered.
+
+Gilbert's black brows lowered ominously at the sight, but he never
+spoke; and, when her good-nights were over, bowed silently and carried
+his little wife away, nestling to him as if all griefs and pains were
+banished by returning love.
+
+"Poor little heart! She should have a smoother path to tread. Heaven
+grant she may hereafter; and this sudden penitence prove no sham."
+Manuel paused suddenly, for as if obeying an unconquerable impulse,
+Pauline laid a hand on either shoulder and searched his face with an
+expression which baffled his comprehension, though he bore it steadily
+till her eyes fell before his own, when he asked smilingly:
+
+"Is the doubt destroyed, carina?"
+
+"No; it is laid asleep."
+
+Then as he drew her nearer, as if to make his peace for his unknown
+offense, she turned her cheek away and left him silently. Did she fear
+to find Babie's kiss upon his lips?
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+The work of weeks is soon recorded, and when another month was gone
+these were the changes it had wrought. The four so strangely bound
+together by ties of suffering and sin went on their way, to the world's
+eye, blessed with every gracious gift, but below the tranquil surface
+rolled that undercurrent whose mysterious tides ebb and flow in human
+hearts unfettered by race or rank or time. Gilbert was a good actor,
+but, though he curbed his fitful temper, smoothed his mien, and
+sweetened his manner, his wife soon felt the vanity of hoping to recover
+that which never had been hers. Silently she accepted the fact and,
+uttering no complaint, turned to others for the fostering warmth without
+which she could not live. Conscious of a hunger like her own, Manuel
+could offer her sincerest sympathy, and soon learned to find a troubled
+pleasure in the knowledge that she loved him and her husband knew it,
+for his life of the emotions was rapidly maturing the boy into the man,
+as the fierce ardors of his native skies quicken the growth of wondrous
+plants that blossom in a night. Mrs. Redmond, as young in character as
+in years, felt the attraction of a nature generous and sweet, and
+yielded to it as involuntarily as an unsupported vine yields to the wind
+that blows it to the strong arms of a tree, still unconscious that a
+warmer sentiment than gratitude made his companionship the sunshine of
+her life. Pauline saw this, and sometimes owned within herself that she
+had evoked spirits which she could not rule, but her purpose drove her
+on, and in it she found a charm more perilously potent than before.
+Gilbert watched the three with a smile darker than a frown, yet no
+reproach warned his wife of the danger which she did not see; no jealous
+demonstration roused Manuel to rebel against the oppression of a
+presence so distasteful to him; no rash act or word gave Pauline power
+to banish him, though the one desire of his soul became the discovery of
+the key to the inscrutable expression of her eyes as they followed the
+young pair, whose growing friendship left their mates alone. Slowly her
+manner softened toward him, pity seemed to bridge across the gulf that
+lay between them, and in rare moments time appeared to have retraced its
+steps, leaving the tender woman of a year ago. Nourished by such
+unexpected hope, the early passion throve and strengthened until it
+became the mastering ambition of his life, and, only pausing to make
+assurance doubly sure, he waited the advent of the hour when he could
+"put his fortune to the touch and win or lose it all."
+
+"Manuel, are you coming?"
+
+He was lying on the sward at Mrs. Redmond's feet, and, waking from the
+reverie that held him, while his companion sang the love lay he was
+teaching her, he looked up to see his wife standing on the green slope
+before him. A black lace scarf lay over her blonde hair as Spanish women
+wear their veils, below it the violet eyes shone clear, the cheek glowed
+with the color fresh winds had blown upon their paleness, the lips
+parted with a wistful smile, and a knot of bright-hued leaves upon her
+bosom made a mingling of snow and fire in the dress, whose white folds
+swept the grass. Against a background of hoary cliffs and somber pines,
+this figure stood out like a picture of blooming womanhood, but Manuel
+saw three blemishes upon it--Gilbert had sketched her with that shadowy
+veil upon her head, Gilbert had swung himself across a precipice to
+reach the scarlet nosegay for her breast, Gilbert stood beside her with
+her hand upon his arm; and troubled by the fear that often haunted him
+since Pauline's manner to himself had grown so shy and sad, Manuel
+leaned and looked forgetful of reply, but Mrs. Redmond answered
+blithely:
+
+"He is coming, but with me. You are too grave for us, so go your ways,
+talking wisely of heaven and earth, while we come after, enjoying both
+as we gather lichens, chase the goats, and meet you at the waterfall.
+Now senor, put away guitar and book, for I have learned my lesson; so
+help me with this unruly hair of mine and leave the Spanish for today."
+
+They looked a pair of lovers as Manuel held back the long locks blowing
+in the wind, while Babie tied her hat, still chanting the burthen of the
+tender song she had caught so soon. A voiceless sigh stirred the ruddy
+leaves on Pauline's bosom as she turned away, but Gilbert embodied it in
+words, "They are happier without us. Let us go."
+
+Neither spoke till they reached the appointed tryst. The others were not
+there, and, waiting for them, Pauline sat on a mossy stone, Gilbert
+leaned against the granite boulder beside her, and both silently
+surveyed a scene that made the heart glow, the eye kindle with delight
+as it swept down from that airy height, across valleys dappled with
+shadow and dark with untrodden forests, up ranges of majestic mountains,
+through gap after gap, each hazier than the last, far out into that sea
+of blue which rolls around all the world. Behind them roared the
+waterfall swollen with autumn rains and hurrying to pour itself into the
+rocky basin that lay boiling below, there to leave its legacy of
+shattered trees, then to dash itself into a deeper chasm, soon to be
+haunted by a tragic legend and go glittering away through forest, field,
+and intervale to join the river rolling slowly to the sea. Won by the
+beauty and the grandeur of the scene, Pauline forgot she was not alone,
+till turning, she suddenly became aware that while she scanned the face
+of nature her companion had been scanning hers. What he saw there she
+could not tell, but all restraint had vanished from his manner, all
+reticence from his speech, for with the old ardor in his eye, the old
+impetuosity in his voice, he said, leaning down as if to read her heart,
+"This is the moment I have waited for so long. For now you see what I
+see, that both have made a bitter blunder, and may yet repair it. Those
+children love each other; let them love, youth mates them, fortune makes
+them equals, fate brings them together that we may be free. Accept this
+freedom as I do, and come out into the world with me to lead the life
+you were born to enjoy."
+
+With the first words he uttered Pauline felt that the time had come, and
+in the drawing of a breath was ready for it, with every sense alert,
+every power under full control, every feature obedient to the art which
+had become a second nature. Gilbert had seized her hand, and she did not
+draw it back; the sudden advent of the instant which must end her work
+sent an unwonted color to her cheek, and she did avert it; the
+exultation which flashed into her eyes made it unsafe to meet his own,
+and they drooped before him as if in shame or fear, her whole face woke
+and brightened with the excitement that stirred her blood. She did not
+seek to conceal it, but let him cheat himself with the belief that love
+touched it with such light and warmth, as she softly answered in a voice
+whose accents seemed to assure his hope.
+
+"You ask me to relinquish much. What do you offer in return, Gilbert,
+that I may not for a second time find love's labor lost?"
+
+It was a wily speech, though sweetly spoken, for it reminded him how
+much he had thrown away, how little now remained to give, but her mien
+inspired him, and nothing daunted, he replied more ardently than ever:
+
+"I can offer you a heart always faithful in truth though not in seeming,
+for I never loved that child. I would give years of happy life to undo
+that act and be again the man you trusted. I can offer you a name which
+shall yet be an honorable one, despite the stain an hour's madness cast
+upon it. You once taunted me with cowardice because I dared not face the
+world and conquer it. I dare do that now; I long to escape from this
+disgraceful servitude, to throw myself into the press, to struggle and
+achieve for your dear sake. I can offer you strength, energy,
+devotion--three gifts worthy any woman's acceptance who possesses power
+to direct, reward, and enjoy them as you do, Pauline. Because with your
+presence for my inspiration, I feel that I can retrieve my faultful
+past, and with time become God's noblest work--an honest man. Babie
+never could exert this influence over me. You can, you will, for now my
+earthly hope is in your hands, my soul's salvation in your love."
+
+If that love had not died a sudden death, it would have risen up to
+answer him as the one sincere desire of an erring life cried out to her
+for help, and this man, as proud as sinful, knelt down before her with a
+passionate humility never paid at any other shrine, human or divine. It
+seemed to melt and win her, for he saw the color ebb and flow, heard the
+rapid beating of her heart, felt the hand tremble in his own, and
+received no denial but a lingering doubt, whose removal was a keen
+satisfaction to himself.
+
+"Tell me, before I answer, are you sure that Manuel loves Babie?"
+
+"I am; for every day convinces me that he has outlived the brief
+delusion, and longs for liberty, but dares not ask it. Ah! that pricks
+pride! But it is so. I have watched with jealous vigilance and let no
+sign escape me; because in his infidelity to you lay my chief hope. Has
+he not grown melancholy, cold, and silent? Does he not seek Babie and,
+of late, shun you? Will he not always yield his place to me without a
+token of displeasure or regret? Has he ever uttered reproach, warning,
+or command to you, although he knows I was and am your lover? Can you
+deny these proofs, or pause to ask if he will refuse to break the tie
+that binds him to a woman, whose superiority in all things keeps him a
+subject where he would be a king? You do not know the heart of man if
+you believe he will not bless you for his freedom."
+
+Like the cloud which just then swept across the valley, blotting out its
+sunshine with a gloomy shadow, a troubled look flitted over Pauline's
+face. But if the words woke any sleeping fear she cherished, it was
+peremptorily banished, for scarcely had the watcher seen it than it was
+gone. Her eyes still shone upon the ground, and still she prolonged the
+bittersweet delight at seeing this humiliation of both soul and body by
+asking the one question whose reply would complete her sad success.
+
+"Gilbert, do you believe I love you still?"
+
+"I know it! Can I not read the signs that proved it to me once? Can I
+forget that, though you followed me to pity and despise, you have
+remained to pardon and befriend? Am I not sure that no other power could
+work the change you have wrought in me? I was learning to be content
+with slavery, and slowly sinking into that indolence of will which makes
+submission easy. I was learning to forget you, and be resigned to hold
+the shadow when the substance was gone, but you came, and with a look
+undid my work, with a word destroyed my hard-won peace, with a touch
+roused the passion which was not dead but sleeping, and have made this
+month of growing certainty to be the sweetest in my life--for I believed
+all lost, and you showed me that all was won. Surely that smile is
+propitious! and I may hope to hear the happy confirmation of my faith
+from lips that were formed to say 'I love!'"
+
+She looked up then, and her eyes burned on him, with an expression which
+made his heart leap with expectant joy, as over cheek and forehead
+spread a glow of womanly emotion too genuine to be feigned, and her
+voice thrilled with the fervor of that sentiment which blesses life and
+outlives death.
+
+"Yes, I love; not as of old, with a girl's blind infatuation, but with
+the warmth and wisdom of heart, mind, and soul--love made up of honor,
+penitence and trust, nourished in secret by the better self which
+lingers in the most tried and tempted of us, and now ready to blossom
+and bear fruit, if God so wills. I have been once deceived, but faith
+still endures, and I believe that I may yet earn this crowning gift of a
+woman's life for the man who shall make my happiness as I make his--who
+shall find me the prouder for past coldness, the humbler for past
+pride--whose life shall pass serenely loving. And that beloved is--my
+husband." If she had lifted her white hand and stabbed him, with that
+smile upon her face, it would not have shocked him with a more pale
+dismay than did those two words as Pauline shook him off and rose up,
+beautiful and stern as an avenging angel. Dumb with an amazement too
+fathomless for words, he knelt there motionless and aghast. She did not
+speak. And, passing his hand across his eyes as if he felt himself the
+prey to some delusion, he rose slowly, asking, half incredulously, half
+imploringly, "Pauline, this is a jest?"
+
+"To me it is; to you--a bitter earnest."
+
+A dim foreboding of the truth fell on him then, and with it a strange
+sense of fear; for in this apparition of human judgment he seemed to
+receive a premonition of the divine. With a sudden gesture of something
+like entreaty, he cried out, as if his fate lay in her hands, "How will
+it end? how will it end?"
+
+"As it began--in sorrow, shame and loss." Then, in words that fell hot
+and heavy on the sore heart made desolate, she poured out the dark
+history of the wrong and the atonement wrung from him with such pitiless
+patience and inexorable will. No hard fact remained unrecorded, no
+subtle act unveiled, no hint of her bright future unspared to deepen the
+gloom of his. And when the final word of doom died upon the lips that
+should have awarded pardon, not punishment, Pauline tore away the last
+gift he had given, and dropping it to the rocky path, set her foot upon
+it, as if it were the scarlet badge of her subjection to the evil spirit
+which had haunted her so long, now cast out and crushed forever.
+
+Gilbert had listened with a slowly gathering despair, which deepened to
+the blind recklessness that comes to those whose passions are their
+masters, when some blow smites but cannot subdue. Pale to his very lips,
+with the still white wrath, so much more terrible to witness than the
+fiercest ebullition of the ire that flames and feeds like a sudden fire,
+he waited till she ended, then used the one retaliation she had left
+him. His hand went to his breast, a tattered glove flashed white against
+the cliff as he held it up before her, saying, in a voice that rose
+gradually till the last words sounded clear above the waterfall's wild
+song:
+
+"It was well and womanly done, Pauline, and I could wish Manuel a happy
+life with such a tender, frank, and noble wife; but the future which you
+paint so well never shall be his. For, by the Lord that hears me! I
+swear I will end this jest of yours in a more bitter earnest than you
+prophesied. Look; I have worn this since the night you began the
+conflict, which has ended in defeat to me, as it shall to you. I do not
+war with women, but you shall have one man's blood upon your soul, for I
+will goad that tame boy to rebellion by flinging this in his face and
+taunting him with a perfidy blacker than my own. Will that rouse him to
+forget your commands and answer like a man?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+The word rang through the air sharp and short as a pistol shot, a
+slender brown hand wrenched the glove away, and Manuel came between
+them. Wild with fear, Mrs. Redmond clung to him. Pauline sprang before
+him, and for a moment the two faced each other, with a year's smoldering
+jealousy and hate blazing in fiery eyes, trembling in clenched hands,
+and surging through set teeth in defiant speech.
+
+"This is the gentleman who gambles his friend to desperation, and skulks
+behind a woman, like the coward he is," sneered Gilbert.
+
+"Traitor and swindler, you lie!" shouted Manuel, and, flinging his wife
+behind him, he sent the glove, with a stinging blow, full in his
+opponent's face.
+
+Then the wild beast that lurks in every strong man's blood leaped up in
+Gilbert Redmond's, as, with a single gesture of his sinewy right arm he
+swept Manuel to the verge of the narrow ledge, saw him hang poised there
+one awful instant, struggling to save the living weight that weighed him
+down, heard a heavy plunge into the black pool below, and felt that
+thrill of horrible delight which comes to murderers alone.
+
+So swift and sure had been the act it left no time for help. A rush, a
+plunge, a pause, and then two figures stood where four had been--a man
+and woman staring dumbly at each other, appalled at the dread silence
+that made high noon more ghostly than the deepest night. And with that
+moment of impotent horror, remorse, and woe, Pauline's long punishment
+began.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pauline's Passion and Punishment, by
+Louisa May Alcott
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